p.

which to write. O curse the fates which keep us apart - I
am nothing without you, my love. XXX H.
Friday 12th June. I seem to be full of inspections these days - &
today the Area Commander came & had a good snoop round.
He is very much more thorough & intelligent than Col. L. & had
quite a few chats with various men about things in general,
& he seemed very pleased with everything & said so.
I took the opportunity of thanking him for recommending
my application - & he said he was sorry he had not the
power to do more than that, & he advised me not to
build up my hopes, as chances are so slender. He had
no need to tell me that I'm afraid, & I have pretty
well given up hope already, as it is high time for
me to have heard, were the news to be favourable.
But he is a decent little man, & it is kind of him to
have done what he has. I'm feeling bloody depressed today,
as the news is not so good again. We have evacuated
Bir Hakeim - & the Chinese have had to evacuate
somewhere else - & the Germans are hammering at
Sebastopol [Sevastopol] & massing men at Karkhov [Kharkov]. And all we
can show is this treaty with Russia - which should
have been made in 1938 or 9, & so prevented war -
& a vague promise of a second European front in
1942. It is all going to be alright, of course, - but
there is very little sign of a speedy end to it all. And
meanwhile, we are breaking our hearts for each other,
& mine is additionally broken for Maxie - & there now
seems to be nothing more we can do. The less you lose
a startling success at the W.O.
But I must not drag on about this sad & seemingly hopeless
subject - & instead I will try to interest you about
my day with Burstein yesterday.